Faith

Categories Faith

My First Seder and the Four Cups

1 Comment by

I was eight years old or so and I wanted to finally be allowed to take communion at church.

Unlike the Catholic church or Lutheran church or other denominations that have a set schedule for “first communion” or “confirmation”, our church left that decision up to parents.

My parents wanted to make sure me and my sister (who was also clamoring for communion) understood what communion is all about.

So they bought a copy of Martha Zimmerman’s Celebrating Biblical Feasts and hastily prepared a Passover Seder.

So began my love affair with the Haggadah, one that has only deepened over time. In the almost twenty years since my first Passover, I have read dozens of incarnations of the Haggadah. Christian Haggadot. Judaic Haggadot. Secular Haggadot (which seems a contradiction in terms, but I assure you that secular Jews try their hardest).

I love the way the Haggadah points to Christ. I love the way Jesus fulfilled the traditions of Judaism (as well as its laws). I love unwrapping layer upon layer of meaning.

Martha Zimmerman’s Haggadah sparked something inside of me–but it and the host of other Christian Haggadah I’ve read and performed have left me still discontent.

They’re missing my favorite part.

Twenty years ago, my parents prepared a Seder so that my sister and I could understand the meaning of the cup. Now, twenty years later, I’m still marveling over the cup–and am disappointed that my first Christian Haggadah (and later Christian Haggadot) didn’t go deeper into the cups.

The Seders I grew up with numbered the four cups per tradition, and even gave them their traditional names. The Cup of Sanctification. The Cup of Deliverance. The Cup of Redemption. The Cup of Rejoicing. But those names were little more that the subheading before the blessing. Not one Haggadah bothered to explain where these names came from–or what they meant.

This is the first part in a four-part series on the four cups of the Seder. Stay tuned for the rest of the posts, which will be rolling out over the next couple of weeks.

Categories Faith

When push comes to shove

4 Comments by

I’m absolutely terrified.

We were all sitting around hours after our small group had ended, eagerly discussing one modern issue after another.

Abortion. Gay marriage. Illegal immigration.

The role of the church in all of the above.

Sarah Palin. Ron Brown. Random Irish pastors.

Somehow someone mentioned that Passover was on Good Friday this year.

I said we should do a Seder.

Pastor Justin jumped in: “Have you ever been to one of those?”

My sister looked at me, and now it was her turn to tell my stories.

“Rebekah’s pretty into that–she’s even written her own Haggadah.”

“It’s pretty much one of the greatest passions of my life,” I confessed. (I might have been slightly overstating it–but not much.)

And then he made an offer.

Show him what I’ve got. We could do something with it. The whole church. It’d be cool.

Justin was getting excited.

I was feeling reticent.

When push comes to shove, it’s hard to commit to something I might fail at.

I might have sloppy exegesis. I might misunderstand the Jewish customs. I might obscure the truth instead of unveiling it. I might bore people instead of inciting them to worship.

I might be insufficient to the task.

When push comes to shove, it’s the same old story.

Is this about me or is it about God’s glory?

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
~2 Corinthians 12:9

Categories Following Christ

A Juxtoposed Confession

Leave a comment by

In seasons where the longing seems overwhelming, I’ll often sigh and think, “Lord, You know my heart” as the words of a Delirious song pour forth from my lips:

Lord, You have my heart
And I will search for Yours
Jesus, take my life
And lead me on

Every time these words and this melody burst into my consciousness, I wonder at my juxtaposition of “know” in my mind with “have” from my lips.

My mind tells the Lord–and myself–that He knows my heart. He knows what I desire. He knows what captivates me, what make my heart dream. He is familiar with my heart both in its baseness and its nobility.

My lips sing that the Lord has my heart–that my heart is captivated by, consumed with Him.

My mind speak the truth, my mouth what I wish to be the truth.

I close my musings with a resolution and a prayer:

And I will search for Yours

That I will seek His heart is a tacit confession that my heart is not His. I still desire my own gain, my own comfort, my own self. My heart is drawn to a hundred things that aren’t the heart of God.

But I want the heart of God, even if my heart disagrees.

Let my heart be taken prisoner, let it be enslaved. May my heart forever be behind bars, so long as it is a prisoner to the heart of God.

And with my heart your prisoner, I pray, take my body to be your slave:

Jesus take my heart and lead me on

A confession of a heart gone wickedly astray.

A confession of a soul longing to be disciplined by grace.

A confession of a woman who longs and does not long to be Christ’s slave.

“Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I like a usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived and proves weak or untrue,
Yet dearly’I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthral me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.”
~John Donne, Holy Sonnet 14

Categories Everyday Life, Following Christ

Swearing Oaths

4 Comments by

“Will you swear to be my friend for ever and ever?” demanded Anne eagerly.

Diana looked shocked.

“Why, it’s dreadfully wicked to swear,” she said rebukingly.

“Oh no, not my kind of swearing. There are two kinds, you know.”

“I never heard of but one kind,” said Diana doubtfully.

“There really is another. Oh, it isn’t wicked at all. It just means vowing and promising solemnly.”

“Well, I don’t mind doing that,” agreed Diana, relieved. “How do you do it?”

~From L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables

Anne convinced Diana that this kind of swearing was okay–but, in fact, this was the complete opposite of Christ’s words.

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

~Matthew 5:33-37

Christ intended that His followers not swear oaths–because He wanted their word to be their oath. He intended that every word from our mouths be truthful, and that we do everything we say we will do.

So what happens when a Christian swears an oath–say, that her hair belongs to her husband, that he can do with it what he wishes?

Then say a dozen years passes and her husband is nowhere in sight.

She’s been doing little with her hair, waiting for that husband to come along and tell her what to do.

Then say a hairdresser friend comes along, points out her split ends, and offers to cut and layer her hair.

What should she do?

She’d sworn an oath, she’d made a vow–not under compulsion, but willingly. Her hair belongs to her husband–the husband she doesn’t have.

How would he have her care for her hair?

And there we have it.

Care for her hair.

Surely he would have her care for her hair. Not leave it to develop split ends and ragged edges. Not ignore it until he shows up to give her cues.

He would have her care for it, right?

And that is why I am resolved. I will take Gena’s offer and let her cut and layer my hair. I will care for it.

Husband of mine, should you wish any different, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Lest any of my readers also be Facebook friends and be fearing that I am making my decision in reaction to a resident’s ill-judged attempt to tell me what to do with my hair (I may not know who my husband will be, but I do know with certainty that it will not be him)–I am not. I had already made my decision and written this post prior to that conversation.

Though it does help to know that at least three of my aunts are in favor of the chop :-)

Categories Faith, Rants

Why I’m not bothered by X-mas (like some people are)

Leave a comment by

If your Facebook news feed is anything like mine, it’s populated by status updates from three types of people: those who love Christmas, those who hate Christmas, and those who are desperate to put Christ back in Christmas.

The third group is, of course, referring to the apparently secular designation “X-mas.”

I am not among those bothered by “X-mas”, partly because I’m not sure the title is worth a fight and partly because I’m not sure that X-mas is so anti-Christ as it’s made out to be.

After all, when I think of an “X” in place of something in a word, the first thing that comes to mind is those signs in front of Walmarts everywhere.

PED XING they declare in bold caps.

Pedestrian crossing.

X=Cross

Cross-Mas.

I can handle that.

The second thing I think of when I think of an X in place of a word is how illiterate individuals sign their names.

I know that Jesus wasn’t illiterate–he did, after all, take his place reading the Torah in the synagogue (Luke 4:16-21). But he was the companion of uneducated, common men (Acts 4:13). Throughout his life, Jesus spent time with the lowest of the low, the “underclass” of the Jewish world–Samaritans, prostitutes, tax collectors. You couldn’t go any lower.

Except that Jesus did. He went as low as absolutely possible, humbling himself to take on the humiliation of every man–every sin ever committed. He identified with–no, he became the lowest of the low by taking on man’s sin and bearing man’s curse.

I can see Jesus signing His name with a bold “X”, a reminder of of his identification with the downtrodden.

But the X doesn’t only mean “Cross” like in Ped Xing. It isn’t simply a mark in place of a signature.

X is also the Latinized version of the Greek letter CHI.

As in Χριστός (Christos).

Yes, that’s right.

X-mas means CHRISTmas.

Which is probably why I’m not too bothered by it.

Interested in reading more about the word “X-mas”? Check out Wikipedia’s article on the topic.

As an additional note, I always pronounce the word “X-mas” as “KRISS-MUSS”, never as “EX MUSS”; just as I never (except in jest) say “I EM AACH OH” when I mean “In my humble opinion.”

IMHO (read “In my humble opinion”), X-mas is an abbreviation that should be used only to save space in print, not to degrade the spoken language.

Categories Theology

God’s Free Will

Leave a comment by

Nothing is more apt to stir up controversy in my mix of friends and relatives (coming from Lutheran, Arminian, and Reformed traditions) than to ask, “Do you believe in free will?”

The savvy debater (and theology nerd) will respond with another question: “Whose?”

It is possible, you see to believe in free will for one sort of person and not believe in free will for another.

When referring to man, free will is set in contrast to determinism. With free will, man does as he chooses. With determinism, he does what has been predetermined (by God) that he should do.

When referring to God, free will is set in contrast to necessary will. Necessary will is what God must do because of who He is (in a sense, what God will do is “determined” because of His character). Free will is what God chooses to do without any compulsion.

Is this idea of free will versus necessary will a new concept for you? It was for me.

The doctrine of God’s necessary will states that there are some instances where God doesn’t have a choice. God doesn’t have a choice to lie or to be truthful. He is truth, end of story. He cannot lie. Likewise, God cannot excuse sin. He must punish sin. He is constrained by His holy character to act in accordance with His holiness by punishing sin.

Does this mean that God kicks and screams against His character, wishing He could just once lie or just once let sin off?

Absolutely not. God wants to act in accordance with His character. He wills to be truthful, He wills to punish sin. Even if it is his necessary will, it is still God’s will.

On the other hand, God’s free will encompasses those things that God chooses to do that He does not have to do.

Creation is one example of God’s free will in action. God did not have to create the world.

The doctrine of God’s independence insists that God does not need anything-certainly not any created thing. He is Himself completely satisfied in Himself. Before the creation of the world, God lacked nothing, being complete in His triune nature.

Yet God has chosen to create this universe, not because He needed to, but because He wanted to.

If you haven’t yet figured it out, I believe in free will. God’s free will, that is.

So far as man’s free will? I still haven’t made up my mind on that one.

Categories Faith

The Blasphemy of Christian Divorce

2 Comments by

Divorce is a nasty thing. Almost everyone is willing to agree with that. It breaks apart families, scars children, and destabilizes culture. We know this.

But nearly everyone insists that their case is different.

After all, you just don’t understand how unhappy I/he/the children are with things the way they are. You don’t understand how I/he/we have changed since we first made our vows. You don’t understand how we just can’t resolve this/these issue/s.

Yes, divorce is painful–but don’t you dare judge me for this. I’m just doing what I have to do. I’m a victim, my ex is a victim, my kids are victims. None of us are to blame for this divorce. It just had to happen.

Don’t worry. We’re amicable. We’re doing divorce like it should be done, looking out for the interests of the children. We’re not squabbling about who gets what. We’re addressing this like rational adults, like Christians–that is, except that we’re blaspheming the name of the Lord.

A little harsh?

I don’t think so.

I am convinced that the very concept of “Christian divorce” is blasphemy against a faithful God.

Why?

Because Christian marriage (actually all marriage, but Christian marriage especially) is designed to be a reflection of God’s relationship with mankind.

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

~Ephesians 5:22-33

In a very real sense, every Christian marriage is like Hosea’s marriage–a prophetic picture of God’s love for and faithfulness towards the one to whom He has espoused Himself.

And when Christians divorce, the moral of our story reads that God is unfaithful, that God bails when the going gets tough.

In other words, when Christians divorce, we write a blasphemous play in which God is unfaithful.

Furthermore, as Christians, we testify that God makes the broken whole, that God redeems sinners, that God’s love covers a multitude of sins.

When we, as Christians, divorce, we testify with our lives that God is not able to make our broken marriage whole. We say that God cannot redeem THAT sinner. We say that God’s love is not enough to cover HIS (or HER) sins.

We blaspheme the name of the Lord.

Please do not think that divorce is the only way Christians blaspheme. In fact, it could be said that we blaspheme every time we lie, steal, cheat, fornicate, remain unforgiving, etc. But I don’t see the evangelical church excusing those sins in the same way I see them excusing divorce. That’s why I single out divorce–not because it’s the only example of lifestyle blasphemy, but because it has become a normative and acceptable part of the evangelical experience. This ought not be so.

At the same time, I must also point my readers towards the Scriptural teachings on divorce–teachings which give guidelines for divorce in the case of sexual immorality and when an unbelieving spouse divorces his/her believing spouse. See Matthew 19:9 for the former and I Corinthians 7:12-15 for the latter.

Categories Theology

On the Nature of Revelation

1 Comment by

I’m blessed to belong to a church that takes the Bible seriously–and that teaches its people how to correctly divide the Word of truth.

I’m taking Systematic Theology I this year and am loving it.

One thing I’m not necessarily loving is how busy I’ve been between Systematic Theology, teaching Sunday School, Bible study, and working.

Which is why, after spending way too much time looking up nail art online (as opposed to writing a blog post), I’m going to cheat on blogging by posting an excerpt from my first Systematic Theology paper (due today) on Bibliology.

God is not silent.

He does not lurk in dark corners, such that no one will see him. Instead, He is at work revealing Himself to all men (Ps 98:2, Rom 1:19).

He reveals Himself through a variety of means, including through creation (Ps 19:1, Rom 1:20), through human conscience (Rom 2:15), through the prophets (Heb 1:1), through Jesus Christ (Heb 1:2), and through the words of Scripture (2 Pet 1:20-21).

Generally, the ways through which God reveals Himself are divided into two categories: general revelation, which is given to all indiscriminately, and special revelation, which is given to specific individuals.

General revelation encompasses what can be known of God from creation, from human conscience, and through reasoning.

Special revelation encompasses what God reveals of Himself through the words of Scripture or of prophecy.

Certain things are true of all revelation, both general and specific.

First, all revelation is available because God expressly purposed to reveal it (Matt 11:25-27). No revelation is accidental or outside God’s will.

Second, because revelation is God Himself revealing Himself and because God is completely true and incapable of lying (Num 23:9, Tit 1:2), all revelation is completely true.

Third, because God is unchanging (Jam 1:17, Mal 3:6, Ps 102:27, Num 23:9) and his word is true, revelation cannot contradict itself. If God were changeable, it would be possible for revelation to be true at a certain point in time and not true at another; but since God is unchanging, all revealed truth must be the same at all times.

Finally, while all revelation is purposeful, is true, and is non-contradictory, a final characteristic of all revelation is that it can be suppressed or misinterpreted by unbelieving hearts (Rom 1:18, 2 Cor 3:14-15, I Tim 4:1-2).

How do you like my dry, academic writing? Our assignment was to summarize what we believed about revelation (with Scriptural support) in one and a half double spaced pages.

Yeah. This is one-third of what I wrote and what I wrote only scratched the surface.

But I suppose it’s a start.

Categories Faith, Rants

The Solution to Society’s Sin (Smoking)

2 Comments by

“Both my mom and my dad smoke,” she confided, a wisp of shame blowing across her face.

I held my breath and my tongue for a moment, acutely aware of the other children listening in for my response.

I nodded, smiled sympathetically. “It’s very hard to stop smoking once you start. That’s why it’s better not to start in the first place.”

I wasn’t quite sure if I’d responded appropriately, but all around the room kids were picking up their crayons to color once more.

Smoking has become today’s ultimate social sin. Smokers are pariahs, pushed out of our company into the cold outdoors. We will eat and chat around the table–they can do so huddled around the front step.

We say it is for their own good and for their children’s.

Really, it is for our good and our children’s.

We are afraid of lung cancer, annoyed by allergies to cigarette smoke. And we are the majority, so we can make them do whatever we’d like.

For the children’s sake, we say, as we think up more ways to ostracize smokers.

Maybe if we make it illegal to smoke in a car if minors are present…

But we fail to recognize the difficult position we place children in.

They love their parents, but they’re inundated on every side with messages that say that Mom and Dad are bad and have a dirty habit and want to kill themselves and their children.

The children of smokers become wilderness-loving Pearls, forever separated from normalcy by the scarlet “A” their parents wear. Like Pearl’s red-trimmed garments, the smoke that clings to them (third hand smoke, professionals call it) reminds the world–and themselves–of their dubious parentage.

Some escape into lawlessness, as Pearl did. Others set their faces and walk amongst the rest of us, their faces and voices dark with the shame they feel.

It’s a true tragedy, and one where the child always loses–destined not only to bear the physical effects of second (and third) hand smoke, but the emotional effects of the world’s censure.

How can we protect children from these evils, the physical and the emotional?

Do we ban smoking and develop anti-addiction programs? Do we encourage children to establish healthy role models? Do we boost their self-esteem through sports or community involvement?

I propose a radical solution.

Let’s love them, and their parents, with the radical love of Christ. Let’s join them in their shame, recognizing that we all are fallen–and then lift them out of their shame by introducing them to the gracious God who loves sinners and makes them saints.

Let’s counter the social-sin of smoking with the gospel.